Writer, blogger educating and informing consumers about housing issues related to Association-governed communities (HOAs), including planned community developments, townhouse and condominium associations, affordable housing, and development districts.
By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities Another week, another report of HOA lunacy. The latest story comes from Seven Oaks Property Owners Association (SOPOA) in Wesley Chapel, Florida. According to a report by Kendra Conlon, WTSP, SOPOA’s management company Associa, working with an attorney from Bush Ross, is now threatening to foreclose on the … More How HOAs abuse power to impose fines
By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities Overall, the industry that builds, sells, and serves HOAs promotes the wildly unrealistic assumption that unit owners and shareholders will forever engage in fair and friendly cooperation with their association leaders and their neighbors. But the association governance model is based on several faulty assumptions, and is dependent … More How to make your HOA work for its members, a daunting challenge
By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities A legal team from Becker & Poliakoff recently announced a $10 million award for the Grandview 1 at Port Imperial Condominium Association, located along the shores of the Hudson Bay in New Jersey. A jury award included $9 million from Hovnanian Enterprises, one of the country’s largest real … More NJ Condo association gets $10 M in landmark construction defect lawsuit
By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities This week brings two disturbing reports of violence among residents living in association governed communities. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that 33-year old Eric Leroy shot and injured his HOA president, Timothy Rose. Although Leroy has been arrested in connection with the incident, the name of the … More Recent HOA conflict results in gun violence
By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities It never ceases to amaze me when an entrenched HOA board member insists upon going against the will of the people. I wrote about Dammeron Valley, Utah, a few weeks ago. At that time, three additional subdivisions had voted to exit from the 40-plus year old Landowners Association. Seven … More Dammeron Valley HOA board not acknowledging recent exit of members?
By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities Conflicts over who should control Poinciana, one of Florida’s largest homeowners associations with 26,000 homes, have been ongoing for years. At the heart of the matter is the fact that the 44 year old planned community – a Census designate place near Orlando – remains primarily under the control … More Poinciana owners say developer cast thousands of invalid votes in HOA election
By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities Many types of organizations are referred to as homeowners associations (HOAs). The media tend to lump all HOAs together as the same thing, often failing to make important distinctions between voluntary civic associations and mandatory homeowners associations. And that explains, in part, why there is so much public confusion … More Civic and neighborhood associations very different from “modern” HOAs
US Census data on Special Districts helps explain why your taxes are so high By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities The U.S. has continued to add additional layers of local government, even though industry trade group Community Associations Institute (CAI) estimates there are more than 340,000 association-governed communities now in existence. Ironically, when CAI … More Census reports many layers of government, HOAs not counted among them
By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities Although the number of new homes sold in the U.S. has increased dramatically in recent years, the share of new HOA home sales as a percentage of all new construction home sales has been relatively modest, with trends that vary significantly by region. Let’s take a look at data … More New homes under $200K less likely to be part of HOA per Census data
Originally posted on Independent American Communities:
By Deborah Goonan, Independent American Communities ? To solve any problem, it helps to identify its cause or causes. So as we attempt to tackle social and economic problems plaguing many of our association-governed, common interest communities, we need to look beyond the increasingly obvious abuse and HOA horror…
